Neurology Diagnostics

Archive for the ‘Stress and Deppression’ Category

Although there is the idea that excessive stress can cause a stroke (CVA), a new study found no evidence that stressful experiences enhance the risk of a deadly type of stroke.

The study, published in Stroke, examined the relationship between stress and the risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage, which occurs when the rupture of a vessel causes bleeding into the space surrounding the brain. Up to half of cases are fatal. It is common that people attributed to sudden stress health problems, such as a stroke, said Dr. Craig S. Anderson, George Institute for International Health and the University of Sydney, Australia.

In the case of a subarachnoid hemorrhage, told Reuters Health, it is possible that a sudden increase in pressure produces a rupture in an aneurysm, a weakened area in the wall of an artery. Sometimes this bleeding occurs by a sudden exertion, such as during exercise or sex, said Anderson. But whether stressful life events increase the risk of suffering a stroke.

Anderson’s team interviewed 388 survivors of subarachnoid hemorrhage who had undergone stressful experiences between one month and one year before the stroke. The survey focused on 12 types of situations, such as the death of a relative or friend, loss of job or have suffered a crime. The team then compared the responses with those of a control group of 473 people the same age who had never suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage. And most of the situations was not related to the risk of bleeding.

But analyzing the experiences of the previous month, two types of stressors, financial or legal problems and “other significant events” – yes were associated with increased risk. 10 percent of the survivors said they had a financial or legal problem the month before the bleeding, as opposed to 4 percent in the control group.

But in considering factors such as hypertension, smoking and alcohol consumption, the relationship between these stressors and the bleeding was only “marginally” significant. There was also an association between the occurrence of subarachnoid hemorrhage have been the victim of a crime the previous year (4 percent of survivors and 1 percent of the control group).
On the other hand, the risk of bleeding decreased in those who had had a family member or friend very ill or had an accident the previous year.

That, according to the researchers, is that the study looked at 12 types of experiences, the few that were weakly associated with the risk of bleeding as they were by chance alone.
Stress, Anderson said, it is very difficult to measure for researchers. The study used an approach of analyzing the rates of the major events that often cause psychological stress. Are unknown real individual responses to these situations. Still, “we can say that ‘stressful experiences’ are not an important risk factor for subarachnoid hemorrhage.”

To prevent it, recommended that people focus on preventing or treating known risk factors of cerebral hemorrhage, which include smoking and hypertension.

The thin men would be more likely to attempt suicide than those who are overweight, according to a new study that confirms a confusing relationship between weight and risk of suicide.
The first study of this relationship in the United States in 1966 and since then, the investigation concluded that a higher body weight, fewer suicides. Most research has focused on men, but the same was observed in women.

A connection is unclear, the authors argue, because other studies showed a higher rate of depression in the obese, who have more health problems. A new look for this relationship was published in American Journal of Epidemiology, from the largest study so far: decades of following more than 1 million men in Sweden to which they had performed physical examinations between 1969 and 1994 for military service.
The team used these records to calculate body mass index (BMI) of men and used the registration of a national hospital discharge to detect suicide attempts in the group until 2006.
In 24 years, 18,277 men (1.6 percent) were admitted to hospital for attempted suicide. That amount, according to body weight, showed only small differences: the 2 percent of men with low weight during the study attempted suicide, compared with 1.6 percent of participants with normal weight and 1.5 percent of men are overweight.

But the team found a pattern between BMI and relative risk of making a suicide attempt, the men with overweight / obesity were 12 percent less likely to try the group with normal weight, while men were underweight 12 percent more likely to do so.

After analyzing all ranges of BMI, the authors found that even among normal weight men, the possibility of suicide decreased as BMI grew. This pattern was evident in men without depression during the draft and was maintained after considering new diagnoses of depression during follow-up. While the results support previous findings, the causes are still unknown, the researchers said Finn Rasmussen, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

The main strength of the study is focused on healthy young people, in which a low BMI could not be attributed to a disease, said Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal of Harvard University and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. To Mukamal, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, it is still possible that depression has a role in the relationship BMI-suicide. It is possible, he said, that men are more likely thinner than those who are overweight to opt for suicide methods which require more physical ability and are more lethal, such as hanging or jumping from. Another possibility, he said, is that larger bodies require higher drug overdose or drugs to be fatal enough.

Stress, in turn, is a very important factor in the production of brain and myocardial infarction. It is quite common that a person with risk factors with an inherited tendency, triggering a stroke in the context of a stressful situation.

Unfortunately, it is a situation difficult to control medically, which affects the quality of life in general, and especially in big cities today, with so many people stressed, where interpersonal contact is very difficult.

Stress can often go unnoticed. Some people are very sensitive, low stress tolerance, which develops symptoms as a little sweating, dizziness, sometimes can be a high blood pressure, gastritis, depends on what the regular expression that has that personal.

The doctor has to talk a lot with the patient to know if you’re stressed, find out what is happening if the symptoms are transient, if there are other causes that produce stress.

Many times, the experts conclude that someone is suffering stress through directed questioning and in sufficient time to do it.

Stress is a more specific field of psychiatry to neurology, but what is clear is that a painting can become prolonged depression and panic attacks.

Many times you have to prescribe antidepressant medication. There are new medications that are antidepressants last generation, very tolerated, very effective for panic crisis that usually come after prolonged stress.